General Terms

This Agreement explains our obligations to you, and your obligations to us.

General Terms

Using the service means you continue to agree to the Terms outlined in this agreement. We can change our Terms if we need to, and we may or may not let you know depending on what changes.

Your use of the services provided by RealNames serves as your consent to the terms of this Agreement.

Tucows will update this Agreement from time to time to clarify existing obligations and policies.

You should visit this page from time to time to review any changes. We may choose to notify you if this Agreement changes, or we may not. Any notification of any changes would be provided as a courtesy that’s not required by this Agreement.

Privacy Policy

We have a Privacy Policy, and we abide by it.

Your agreement with us concerning the treatment of information we collect about you under this Agreement detailed in the terms of RealNames's privacy policy.

Email Acceptable Use Policy

There are some reasonable limitations to how you can use the email service we provide.

If you use RealNames email services, you agree to abide by our Email Acceptable Use Policy.

Term of Agreement and Renewals

We bill yearly, and it’s up to you to tell us when you want to cancel your service.

The Term of this Agreement is twelve (12) months. When you renew your services with us, this Agreement will be renewed for additional 12-month periods, coincident with the term of your services.

On the day prior to the renewal date of your services, we will attempt to renew your services for an additional year using the billing information on file. If our renewal is successful, this Agreement will be extended for an additional 12 months.

If you do not wish to continue service for an email address beyond its current period, you must cancel the service prior to the day before the renewal date of your services.

Renewal fees are non-refundable.

Billing and Contact Information

We need valid billing information or we won’t be able to renew your services each year. We also need to contact you from time to time and can’t if your email address isn’t correct. It’s up to you to keep that information current.

If your billing information is not current, we will not renew your services, and this Agreement will terminate on the last day of the then current term. It’s up to you to ensure billing information is current.

Tucows needs to be able to contact you easily and quickly. You are responsible for ensuring that Tucows has accurate and current contact information for you, including your full and real name, postal address, e-mail address, and phone numbers.

If you need to reach Tucows, you may contact us at:

RealNames, a service of Tucows
96 Mowat Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M6K 3M1
CANADA
(Attention: Office of the General Manager)

Cancellation and Termination

Either of us can decide to end this agreement at any time by cancelling the service.

You may end this Agreement at any time and for any reason by cancelling your RealNames services. You may cancel your account by cancelling all of your services, which will cause this Agreement to terminate and Tucows will delete your account and any email accounts contained in that account.

Tucows can also end this Agreement at any time and for any reason.

If you terminate this Agreement, you will not receive a refund for any fees already paid. If Tucows terminates this Agreement, Tucows will provide you with written notice, either via postal service, or email.

Jurisdiction

We’re located in Ontario, Canada, and you agree that if you take legal action against us for any reason, it must happen in Ontario, Canada.

This Agreement is governed by and will be enforced in accord with the laws of the Province of Ontario, Canada and the federal laws of Canada.

Any action brought against Tucows arising out of or relating to this Agreement must be brought in the courts of Toronto, Ontario, and you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of such courts.

Limitation of Liability

If something bad happens, you agree that at most, we’re liable for what you paid for the service provided.

You agree that our entire liability, and your exclusive remedy, with respect to any services provided under this Agreement and any breach of this Agreement is solely limited to the amounts you have paid us.

Tucows and its directors, employees, affiliates, subsidiaries, agents and third party providers, ICANN and the applicable registries shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages resulting from the use or inability to use any of the services or for the cost of procurement of substitute services. Because some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, in such states, our liability is limited to the extent permitted by law.

We disclaim any and all loss or liability resulting from, but not limited to: (1) loss or liability resulting from access delays or access interruptions; (2) loss or liability resulting from data non-delivery or data mis-delivery; (3) loss or liability resulting from acts of God; (4) loss or liability resulting from the unauthorized use or misuse of your account identifier or password; (5) loss or liability resulting from errors, omissions, or misstatements in any and all information or services(s) provided under this Agreement; (6) loss or liability resulting from the interruption of your service.

You agree that we will not be liable for interruption of business, or any indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any kind (including lost profits) regardless of the form of action whether in contract, tort (including negligence), or otherwise, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Disclaimer of Warranties

We do our absolute best to provide a great service, but we’re not perfect and we’re not promising to be perfect.

You agree that your use of our services is solely at your own risk. You agree that such services are provided on an "as is," "as available" basis.

We expressly disclaim all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

We make no warranty that the services will meet your requirements, or that the services will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error free; nor do we make any warranty as to the results that may be obtained from the use of the service or as to the accuracy or reliability of any information obtained through the service or that defects in the service will be corrected.

You understand and agree that any material and/or data downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of service is done at your own discretion and risk and that you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of such material and/or data.

We make no warranty regarding any goods or services purchased or obtained through the service or any transactions entered into through the service. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from us or through the service shall create any warranty not expressly made herein.

Privacy

Our Privacy and Data Collection Practices

Like most online businesses, RealNames collects information on behalf of, and about our customers. We want to help our clients understand what data we collect, how we use the data we collect, who we share this data with, and how we secure and protect this data.

The purpose of this document is to share these details with our customers and any else that is interested in these details.

Whenever we refer to "RealNames" in this document, we are referring to the domain registration services provided by Tucows.com Co. via the website RealNames.com.

Account Information

When you purchase services from RealNames, we create an account for you. This makes it easier for you to track and manage your purchases with us. For the purpose of creating your account, we collect what we call "account data" and "billing information".

Account data includes:

- The name of the account holder
- An email address associated with the account holder
- A billing address
- A phone number
- The last four digits of your credit card, and expiry date

Our use of your account data

RealNames only uses account data for the purpose of facilitating the management of your account and billing for your purchases. We share this data programmatically with Mailchimp for the purpose of sending your notifications and updates about our services and our payment provider, for the purpose of billing your credit card. RealNames does not store your credit card data for billing purposes and relies solely on tokens to trigger billable events. RealNames retains the last 4 digits of the credit card, the type of credit card and the name associated with the credit card for internal tracking and audit purposes. The data is stored securely and is not useable for any billing or charging purposes.

RealNames shares your name, email address and demographic information with Mailchimp for the purpose of sending you various notifications related to your account. You may choose which notifications you receive under the Settings link in your RealNames account management tools. Neither our payment provider nor Mailchimp may ever use your data for their own purposes without our explicit consent or notice to us.

RealNames may share your account data with law enforcement agencies on a case-by-case basis. We may or may not notify you if this happens, depending on the circumstances. RealNames may also share your account data with a third party under order from a court of competent jurisdiction related to a lawsuit or investigation. Again, we evaluate these requests on a case-by-case basis and we may or may not notify you if this happens.

We may use your account data to contact you concerning a dispute related to your account, or for verification purposes to make sure no one else is accessing your account.

RealNames does not share your account data with any other parties for any other reasons.

Customer Service Information

We use a third party service, Zendesk, to help us manage all of our customer service interactions. Any information you send to use via email is usually stored and tracked in our Zendesk system. We also use Zendesk to log information when you call us for assistance. None of this information is accessible by any third party other than Zendesk.

Electronic Newsletters and Unsubscribe Policy

When you signed up with RealNames, you may have given us permission to send you news and announcements about our services. If you change your mind, you can unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time in the customer dashboard, or through the link we provide at the bottom of every mailer. You can also remove yourself from our mailing list by sending an email request to help@realnames.com or by giving us a phone call.

Data Analytics

We collect and aggregate data concerning how people use the website at www.realnames.com. Some of the data is associated with your RealNames account and the domains you register with us, but is not personally identifiable to our analytics vendors. Data collected helps us understand how people use our website so that we can improve it. We use a variety of third party services to help us collect and analyze this data, including:

- Google Analytics
- Mouseflow

From time to time, we may use other services in addition to these, either to evaluate their effectiveness for long-term use, or to gather information about a very specific question we have. If you ever have any questions about which third party services we are currently using, please don't hesitate to ask us. Any services we have made a long-term commitment to will always be listed here.

Surveys

Occasionally, we send out surveys intended to help us better understand how you use our services and how we can improve them. We never sell the information collected through these surveys.

How to contact us

Acceptable Use

Spam

We don't like spam and we work to reduce the amount of spam sent and received by the RealNames email service.

By using the RealNames service, you agree not to use your RealNames account to send spam. You also agree to take reasonable steps to ensure your account is not used by others to send spam. If your account is deemed to be sending spam, we may suspend and/or terminate your service (without refund).

As part of our anti-spam efforts, we have systems in place that monitor account activity to detect malicious use.

Mass Mailing

Our email service is designed for personal use. As such, it doesn't allow for outbound mass mailing. The number of emails that can be sent per day from your account may be limited, especially immediately after the initial creation of the account. Any limits in place allow for reasonable use by an individual.

File Sharing Features

RealNames prohibits the uploading, sharing, or disseminating of any information,
data, or material that is defamatory, child pornography, or hate literature,
as well as any that is in violation of local, federal, or international
regulation or law, or that is prohibited by common law. This includes, but is
not limited to, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, or
any other statute.

RealNames also prohibits the posting, storing, transmitting, or disseminating
of any information or software that contains a virus, trojan horse, worm,
defect, or any other harmful, contaminating, or disruptive components.

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to lock any account
this is found to be in violation of this policy.

Illegal Activities

Services offered may only be used for lawful purposes.
Transmission, distribution, or storage of any information, data or material
that is in violation of federal or state regulation or law, or by common law,
is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, material protected by
copyright, trademark, trade secret, or any other statute.

We reserve the right to cooperate with law
enforcement and other legal authorities in investigating claims of illegal
activity.